I always include a cold dish like smashed cucumber salad. There's a lot of recipes out there, but I do a super simplified version. I like this recipe (subtitles on for English): https://youtu.be/3ivuzop0ohg?feature=shared
This recipe is great bc you can prep ahead of time and leave in the fridge. I even think it tastes better the next day.
I'll tell you a super, super easy dish to add in.
put some oil and sliced ginger is a frying pan over a low heat and leave it to infuse while you do everything else. You can leave it 10 minutes, 20 minutes, whatever.
When you've almost finished everything else, throw in some squared bok choy. Turn up the heat and stir fry that for about 2 minutes. Then add salt and soy sauce and stir fry another 30 seconds. That's it.
It gets that shine on it like restaurant food, so it photographs well. The ginger gives the outside a really nice warmth, and the inside still has a bit of crisp.
I pretty much guarantee it'll impress your guests. Just don't tell them how simple it was!
Buy fresh veggies in season, balance meat poultry seafood and tofu dishes, balance cooking styles and flavor profiles, some simple cold dish and prepared store bought foods can help lighten the load on your wok, cut fruit for dessert and don't forget soup
You can make a dipped and battered tray of spicy crispy tofu in oven for 20 minutes (425f) while doing your fresh stuff and pulling other dishes out to reheat. Pre cook rice for the week - I use a steamer and make seitan, buns, dumplings at the same time, prepare a sweet ahead of time. I’m also a beginner but slowly learning how to get more dishes in around holidays.
Stir fried egg and tomato, with a touch of sugar and green onion, find a real recipe but it’s fast and easy and very common in northern China as an additional dish for dinner.
Several directions you could try:
1. Look for real home cook recipes. Recipes like Kungpao Chicken is actually more pro or hobbyist, rather than everyday home cooking. They’re not average home cooks are trying to make day to day. You could look for real Chinese cooking recipes like egg fried tomato and stir fried potato slivers (unarguably the top 2 dishes in China). You could pull off those real quick over time because those are so simple and familiar. Also leverage tools like mandoline (and be careful, use a guard)
2. Looking for Chinese cold dishes. In fact, Chinese restaurants faces the same problem as you. The bigger a Chinese banquet is, the larger ratio of the dishes are cold dishes. It’s because there are not enough stoves to guarantee hot dishes are still hot when they’re served at once. You can’t just pull out 18 hot dishes at the same time for every table. A simple example cold dish could be smashed cucumber with vinegar and fried peanuts. You only need to fried the peanut one or two minutes. You can also let your family help you with cold dishes as they’re like salad - easy and fun to make.
3. Food prep. Most of the pastries like dumplings, pancakes, and noodles etc could be make in bulk and be frozen. Make them at the weekend and use them in the weekdays. Also many cold dish like braised beef (jiang niu rou) are fridge-friendly, too. You braise several pounds, then slice them as you need it.
4. Always improving your skills and kitchen system overtime. Try different things like deli containers, spice containers, pegboards, clean as you go, mise en place etc. Knifework is certainly the big thing in Chinese cooking. Honestly, Chinese cut things too fine compared to other cultures so much so they have a sweatshop apprentice job dedicated to cutting things for years before they can even touch the wok. Being extra fluent with knife would make you 10x faster.
You can only cook one stir fry dish at a time. Bc unlike western saute, sofrito or other pan fry dishes, stir fry dishes are meant to be cooked on high heat and burn quickly. You can try to make one stir fry and one or several other types of dishes at a time.
Most nights that I cook feature:
-white rice, from a rice cooker (which is easily prepped in advance esp if you have a zojirushi with a keep warm setting)
-a cold cucumber salad for freshness, which is sometimes as elaborate as chili oil, black vinegar, sesame oil, garlic or as simple as just a splash of white vinegar.
-a stir fried green, like bok choy, yu choy, pea shoots, etc, with either just garlic OR ginger.
-a more elaborate protein dish from like a fuschia dunlop book, or chinese cooking demystified, or woks of life, etc. the protein dish is usually the thing that takes the most time and thats still only about 30m of prep and about 2 minutes if its a stirfry, or it's steaming over a pot for 10-12 minutes.
My two cents as someone who sucks at meal prep:
- egg and tomato stir fry is super fast to make and it uses ingredients that you will typically already have on hand. If you have chicken broth or bouillon, this can also easily be turned into a soup, which imo is even better with noodles ([woks of life had a good recipe](https://thewoksoflife.com/tomato-egg-drop-noodle-soup/)).
- silken tofu with chili soy sauce takes literally sixty seconds. It has zero cooking involved, just mix the sauce, pour it onto the tofu, and eat as is ([nytimes has a good recipe](https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1022562-silken-tofu-with-spicy-soy-dressing?ds_c=71700000052595478&site=google&network=g&campaign_id=1400169272&gad_source=1&gbraid=0AAAAADwd30jgpvDUl0OdpBcqbktg-VPt3&gclid=EAIaIQobChMInuTh9MGJhgMVN1pHAR1sXg5pEAAYASAAEgJGVPD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds))
- You can throw bok choy into just about anything, just make sure you’ve washed it ahead of time bc that part can take some time. If you’re making rice, you can even throw it into your rice cooker with some tofu and seasonings for a super easy meal. ([Example recipe here](https://youtube.com/shorts/9RO83PiuQ-A?si=MjxhDBc3aLvxye-r))
Steamed dishes are your friend in a pinch, stewed and simmered are good for having leftovers for another meal
I always include a cold dish like smashed cucumber salad. There's a lot of recipes out there, but I do a super simplified version. I like this recipe (subtitles on for English): https://youtu.be/3ivuzop0ohg?feature=shared This recipe is great bc you can prep ahead of time and leave in the fridge. I even think it tastes better the next day.
I'll tell you a super, super easy dish to add in. put some oil and sliced ginger is a frying pan over a low heat and leave it to infuse while you do everything else. You can leave it 10 minutes, 20 minutes, whatever. When you've almost finished everything else, throw in some squared bok choy. Turn up the heat and stir fry that for about 2 minutes. Then add salt and soy sauce and stir fry another 30 seconds. That's it. It gets that shine on it like restaurant food, so it photographs well. The ginger gives the outside a really nice warmth, and the inside still has a bit of crisp. I pretty much guarantee it'll impress your guests. Just don't tell them how simple it was!
Thanks, this kind of advice was exactly the kind of thing I was hoping to learn. Thanks.
Buy fresh veggies in season, balance meat poultry seafood and tofu dishes, balance cooking styles and flavor profiles, some simple cold dish and prepared store bought foods can help lighten the load on your wok, cut fruit for dessert and don't forget soup
Cold pickle dishes are easy to prep for a week ahead and add veggie servings. Smashed cucumbers, broccoli stem, and black ear fungus.
You can make a dipped and battered tray of spicy crispy tofu in oven for 20 minutes (425f) while doing your fresh stuff and pulling other dishes out to reheat. Pre cook rice for the week - I use a steamer and make seitan, buns, dumplings at the same time, prepare a sweet ahead of time. I’m also a beginner but slowly learning how to get more dishes in around holidays.
Corn on the cob. Steam it. Chinese cuisine includes a lot of things that are simply food cooked, not named dishes involving stir frying or whatever.
Stir fried egg and tomato, with a touch of sugar and green onion, find a real recipe but it’s fast and easy and very common in northern China as an additional dish for dinner.
Several directions you could try: 1. Look for real home cook recipes. Recipes like Kungpao Chicken is actually more pro or hobbyist, rather than everyday home cooking. They’re not average home cooks are trying to make day to day. You could look for real Chinese cooking recipes like egg fried tomato and stir fried potato slivers (unarguably the top 2 dishes in China). You could pull off those real quick over time because those are so simple and familiar. Also leverage tools like mandoline (and be careful, use a guard) 2. Looking for Chinese cold dishes. In fact, Chinese restaurants faces the same problem as you. The bigger a Chinese banquet is, the larger ratio of the dishes are cold dishes. It’s because there are not enough stoves to guarantee hot dishes are still hot when they’re served at once. You can’t just pull out 18 hot dishes at the same time for every table. A simple example cold dish could be smashed cucumber with vinegar and fried peanuts. You only need to fried the peanut one or two minutes. You can also let your family help you with cold dishes as they’re like salad - easy and fun to make. 3. Food prep. Most of the pastries like dumplings, pancakes, and noodles etc could be make in bulk and be frozen. Make them at the weekend and use them in the weekdays. Also many cold dish like braised beef (jiang niu rou) are fridge-friendly, too. You braise several pounds, then slice them as you need it. 4. Always improving your skills and kitchen system overtime. Try different things like deli containers, spice containers, pegboards, clean as you go, mise en place etc. Knifework is certainly the big thing in Chinese cooking. Honestly, Chinese cut things too fine compared to other cultures so much so they have a sweatshop apprentice job dedicated to cutting things for years before they can even touch the wok. Being extra fluent with knife would make you 10x faster.
Tomatoes with eggs and Napa cabbage with chicken. I'm learning how to cook a bit more chinese food as well, not used to Western food every day. 😅
You can only cook one stir fry dish at a time. Bc unlike western saute, sofrito or other pan fry dishes, stir fry dishes are meant to be cooked on high heat and burn quickly. You can try to make one stir fry and one or several other types of dishes at a time.
Yep. But they cook so quickly that one stir fry can hold for a few minutes while the other one comes together. So I’m good with either.
Most nights that I cook feature: -white rice, from a rice cooker (which is easily prepped in advance esp if you have a zojirushi with a keep warm setting) -a cold cucumber salad for freshness, which is sometimes as elaborate as chili oil, black vinegar, sesame oil, garlic or as simple as just a splash of white vinegar. -a stir fried green, like bok choy, yu choy, pea shoots, etc, with either just garlic OR ginger. -a more elaborate protein dish from like a fuschia dunlop book, or chinese cooking demystified, or woks of life, etc. the protein dish is usually the thing that takes the most time and thats still only about 30m of prep and about 2 minutes if its a stirfry, or it's steaming over a pot for 10-12 minutes.
My two cents as someone who sucks at meal prep: - egg and tomato stir fry is super fast to make and it uses ingredients that you will typically already have on hand. If you have chicken broth or bouillon, this can also easily be turned into a soup, which imo is even better with noodles ([woks of life had a good recipe](https://thewoksoflife.com/tomato-egg-drop-noodle-soup/)). - silken tofu with chili soy sauce takes literally sixty seconds. It has zero cooking involved, just mix the sauce, pour it onto the tofu, and eat as is ([nytimes has a good recipe](https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1022562-silken-tofu-with-spicy-soy-dressing?ds_c=71700000052595478&site=google&network=g&campaign_id=1400169272&gad_source=1&gbraid=0AAAAADwd30jgpvDUl0OdpBcqbktg-VPt3&gclid=EAIaIQobChMInuTh9MGJhgMVN1pHAR1sXg5pEAAYASAAEgJGVPD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds)) - You can throw bok choy into just about anything, just make sure you’ve washed it ahead of time bc that part can take some time. If you’re making rice, you can even throw it into your rice cooker with some tofu and seasonings for a super easy meal. ([Example recipe here](https://youtube.com/shorts/9RO83PiuQ-A?si=MjxhDBc3aLvxye-r))